Mike DeCourcy Joins to Talk Week 1 in College Football

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00:00Mike, of course, you have the sporting news on coast to coast and we start rocking with

00:11him during the first week of the NFL season.

00:15He's fresh off a trip to Italy on vacation.

00:19And I was just telling him and I was excited to go to the Steelers home opener in a couple

00:23of weeks.

00:24I guess I can't live up to that, uh, you know, resume, you know, having that itinerary

00:29in Milan.

00:30I heard you say, I'm like, Christ, this guy went to Italy.

00:33Like you were in Italy for vacation.

00:36Like what is left after that?

00:39I will tell you, Scott, a part of the vacation was to go see a soccer game.

00:44My wife and I went to see Inter Milan.

00:47And you can, you can take all of the crazy sports, crazy American sports fans that you've

00:54ever witnessed, uh, inside a stadium of Cameron crazies, all of the, like, uh, all the crate

01:01and then multiply it by 10 and you'll still fall short of how wild it is at an Inter

01:07Milan game.

01:09They are absolutely, uh, uh, cacophonous, uh, throughout the game.

01:15And when the interesting things, their support, what some people call the ultras, their supporter

01:20section, whatever you want to call them, uh, they are located on the second level at

01:25the San Siro, uh, in, in, in the end zone.

01:29And there are eight to 10 of the, what they call in soccer capos, uh, the, the, the cheerleaders,

01:37the, the cheer, the yell leaders, whatever you want to call them, they are hanging.

01:41They are straddling the second deck railing.

01:45There is one leg dangling and then the other leg back on dry land.

01:50And if they lean a little bit too far to the right, they're falling 40 feet, but they're

01:54all in.

01:55They like it.

01:56They're not worried about the danger at all.

01:58It's all about supporting Inter Milan.

02:00I've never seen anything like that in 40 plus years of covering sports.

02:05Was it, uh, safe for me?

02:10Yes.

02:11Yeah.

02:12Do the straddling.

02:13No.

02:14Uh, for us, it was great.

02:15It was, uh, we had great seats on the sideline.

02:17It was a delightful night.

02:19They don't pay that much attention to the no smoking signs, which is a little bit disappointing,

02:23but, uh, it was, it was a phenomenal evening without a doubt, a real entertainment.

02:29Uh, I, we kind of wanted to see AC Milan to see Christian Pulisic play, uh, but, uh, our,

02:35the way our itinerary worked that, uh, it was Inter that was playing.

02:39Uh, so we went there and it was, it was a phenomenal experience.

02:43Where else did you go in Italy?

02:46Uh, we were in Milan strictly for four or five days.

02:50And then we went from there up on a train up to a beautiful Lake town in Switzerland

02:55called, uh, Lugano, which, uh, the most beautiful place I think I've ever been, uh, just tremendous.

03:01Yeah.

03:02My dad's been there.

03:03Uh, I remember, uh, him just raving about, uh, that place and the Swiss Alps and, uh,

03:10you know, it's just amazing there.

03:12I've never, they won't let me go there.

03:14The federal agents have prohibited me from going there.

03:18I would be one of the guys dangling off the railing and falling 40 feet and causing injury

03:24to others.

03:25I read your article, uh, about your excitement for the college football season, Mike, and

03:30it's underway.

03:31We've already been ranting and raving today about a couple of things.

03:35Mike Cain's, uh, Carver High's fighting Irish.

03:39So I have a history with Notre Dame and how bad Florida state looks and, uh, what was

03:44your thoughts of the real opening week of college football, which was this past weekend?

03:50Well, first of all, everything that I talked about in the column started to come true this

03:56past weekend with, uh, with some terrific results.

03:59The USC victory was huge.

04:03Uh, Penn state going down to West Virginia was really impressive.

04:07Uh, LSU taking that loss and then the Florida state taking that second loss, all these things

04:13add up to real significance now, whereas before you would just, uh, erase somebody like a

04:20Florida state from the rest of this season.

04:23That's over.

04:24They got nothing to play for, but maybe making the Liberty bowl or whatever.

04:27I mean, Florida state technically can still work their way back into it.

04:31And it's a huge, uh, it, you know, it's a huge mountain for them to climb because both

04:35of their lead, both of their losses were league losses, so it's going to be really hard for

04:40them to make it back or LSU.

04:43I mean, everybody's ready to write off Brian Kelly and the Tigers now cause they lost that

04:47game and it certainly hurts and they got mad and you saw Kelly pound the table and all

04:51that, but they can go into the sec now, win the league and make it to the playoff.

04:56It's still all out there for them.

04:58It doesn't have to be over cause you stunk it up in one week.

05:01I think that's beautiful.

05:04The Florida state thing is fascinating on its own, uh, because of the fact that, uh,

05:09they're suing the ACC.

05:11Everybody in the league now dislikes them.

05:13If not more, uh, I think they, they, they become maybe, uh, the least popular college

05:19football team in America.

05:20Now they're up there with Notre Dame, you know, they're kind of fighting the Irish,

05:24uh, for that title and the Irish course, they have basically a century of building toward

05:29this.

05:30Florida state got it done in six months.

05:32How about that?

05:34That's a real achievement.

05:35Don't you think?

05:36Yeah.

05:37I mean to tell you, and, uh, I, well, I'll say one thing.

05:40I don't believe for one minute that you can lose two conference games to start your season

05:45when you're double digit favorites and then have the schedule that they have left.

05:49Even in the ACC, there is no way in hell they're in that playoff.

05:54There is no, it's not going to happen, but it's mathematically possible.

05:58No it isn't.

05:59Okay.

06:00Now I come from, I skipped that day of school.

06:02I am telling you I'm from Mount Lebanon.

06:05That is not working.

06:06That math is not working for me.

06:07I have a question for you.

06:09I thought Michigan looked average to defending champs.

06:12Fans are already on Moore.

06:14That took five minutes and now they have Quinn Ewers and the Longhorns coming to the big

06:18house this week.

06:20Yeah.

06:21It's tough game for them.

06:23Absolutely.

06:24Texas looked really nice, obviously not a great opponent, but they looked really nice

06:27in their opener.

06:28Uh, Ewers is a significant talent.

06:32He now has a nice commercial out there, uh, uh, the, the Dr. Pepper commercial he's, he's,

06:38he's nationally famous now, and this is a big moment for him because he's got to deliver

06:43in a big game.

06:44I mean, they had a really nice year last year and they had a really nice year.

06:48But again, as I mentioned before, all these games have such consequence now, what it obviously

06:53won't have anything to do with whether Texas wins the SEC, but it will have a lot to do

06:58with whether Texas, if they don't win the SEC, can still get into the playoff.

07:03It'll have a lot to do with if they do get into the playoff, what they might be seeded.

07:07So these games really matter and going into the big house.

07:11I know Michigan doesn't have the same team that they did a year ago.

07:14They lost a lot of talent as well as their coach.

07:18But playing against 106,000 people, it's still a challenge.

07:22And I, I think it'll be a fascinating game to watch on Saturday.

07:27Aller looked good for Penn State.

07:30They have owned West Virginia like no other team.

07:34I mean, what are they like?

07:35I mean, they've lost to them twice ever and they've beaten them a ton of times and they

07:40kicked their ass in Morgantown.

07:42I know they had all these fancy shows down there celebrating how great the Mountaineers

07:46are, but they're not good.

07:48And Penn State looked good.

07:50I thought they looked really nice.

07:51I thought Aller played really well.

07:54Just a few passes that, that he could have hit and you say to yourself, how accurate

07:59is he?

08:00But then some of the passes that he put right on the money and you think, okay, like nobody's

08:04going to throw or not, not rare, not often is some quarterback going to throw 30 for

08:1030.

08:11I mean, they're going to miss a few along the way and he missed a few.

08:14But when you can put a pass like he did on the end on the sideline and put it where no

08:19one else can catch it, those kinds of throws are the ones that separate the special

08:24quarterbacks.

08:26People want to judge based on the first time you see somebody, but quarterback play of

08:30all positions in sports is something that really builds.

08:34I mean, even going back to when I first saw Peyton Manning as a freshman at Tennessee,

08:39not the same player that he was in year four.

08:42And then as a rookie in the NFL, not the same player he was in year 10.

08:47So I think Aller showed some real ability and that Penn State can be really dangerous

08:52as they go forward in the Big Ten.

08:54And remember, they don't have to play any longer, both Michigan and Penn State.

08:58They're going to have some tough Big Ten games, but that two game gauntlet was really tough

09:05for them.

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